Mercenaries

Mercenaries refers to both a 13th-century Market technology and several units available to various civilizations. Mercenary units are generally able to be produced very quickly and cost only silver, however they demand alot to be hired. They are, again generally, available in the 15th century, and most of them require the Mercenaries technology.

Contents

To enable the training of mercenaries, you must first research Mercenaries. The technology is available from the 13th century at the Market, costs 200 food and 150 florins and is available to everyone. In addition to enabling mercenary units, it also enables Friesland to hire Ruiters and Bavaria and Saxony to hire Rhenish Knights. Note that mercenary units in many cases also require a policy decision to be researched. The exact mercenary units and their availability and skill will be listed later.

Some civs require their policy decisions to decide for mercenaries. For example, in Brittany you get to choose from either Mercenary Longbowmen or Genoese Crossbowmen, which is dependent on a policy decision. In Burgundy, you can employ Flemish pikemen or English longbowmen. A more interesting example is Saxony, where researching the Teutonic Order disables the Rhenish Knight, which is enabled by picking any other policy decision.

Warriors could even then be considered as "Mercenaries" if an alliance existed between their sovereign and the one who hired them.
Each mercenary unit is listed below, along with their availability and a brief description of their skills. Each unit has its own page as well.